Pride doesn’t come before a fall so hold your head up high

PENSIONERS with a sense of pride are less likely to suffer serious falls, research suggests.

Contrary to the traditional saying “pride comes before a fall”, the opposite now appears to be true, after a team of scientists analysed data from more than 11,000 people aged 60-plus.

Falls affect a large proportion of older adults, sometimes leading to injury and death, with the cost to the taxpayer estimated at £1.1billion a year.

But while the idea exists of pride preceding a fall – a paraphrase of the Old Testament “pride goeth before destruction” – there is no existing evidence to demonstrate this is physically true.

A team of researchers from the universities of Stirling and Aberdeen and the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley asked participants to what degree they felt proud in the previous 30 days. Analysis of the results, published in the British Medical Journal, showed that higher levels of pride were associated with a 19 per cent decrease in the risk of having a fall in the two years after the survey. The researchers believe that proud pensioners may walk with a better posture.